In the current computed tomography (CT) image acquisition process, X-Ray scout images are acquired for anatomy localization. An operator reviews the scouts and sets scanning parameters to acquire images of patient region of interest. Patient anatomy is unknown to the scanner. Furthermore, after the images have been reconstructed, typically the operator has to divide the scanned images into anatomical regions to bill and network to the appropriate department within radiology e.g. Chest, Abdomen etc. This is called Exam Split.
The annotation on the images depends on the patient's orientation within the gantry at the time of scanning. This orientation (whether head first or feet first etc) is manually entered by the operator. There have been times when this orientation is either entered incorrectly or due to other factors, the patient orientation was changed after the orientation on the scanner prescription was entered. This causes the annotation of the patient images to be incorrect which can lead to serious consequences.
There is a need for an automated process of Exam Split. Further there is a need for the scanner to be able to identify anatomy, and therefore it can also identify the orientation of the patient when scanning and the annotation of the images will be directly correlated to the actual scanned data, thus eliminating errors as described above.